Berghia Nudibranch Question

[mvbrandt]

Ok, let's see if I can keep this simple.

15G IM Nuvo Nano
I've recently built out and am past cycle on a 150G CADE

I want to move over my 15's occupants, very happy corals, etc to the 150 sometime in the next couple months once things are super stable.

The 15 has two nuisances I want to clear first. A bit of hair algae, and two pretty big and oddly harmless Aiptasia.

Now on the Aiptasia front, I've never seen any but the two. I've read Berghia starve if they don't eat Aiptasia in 5-7 days. I procured 5 smaller ones with plans to bring them to a LFS soon as the 2 Aips were gone.

They are NOT Majano, etc.

Within 24 hours of adding the Berghia nearly two months ago, both Aiptasia moved for the first time since I first noticed them. One went into a tight crevasse, the other walked halfway around the tank. Very seemingly clear cause and effect. It had been quite some months of never moving, then both moved within hours of adding the Berghia.

Six weeks or so later, both are still alive. But so are all the Berghia. Like, all. I can count all 5 right now in the tank at night.

My gut tells me the only way this is feasible is if there's just a TON of Aiptasia basically underneath the live rock, because they haven't gotten at the big two, and I to date haven't seen any others, anywhere, and I stare at the thing for hours at all times of day (it's next to me in my office).

Any thoughts? I don't want the Berghia to starve needlessly, captive born or not. My tank is VERY heavy on Zoas and I'm super uncomfy with trying kalk or other chemicals on the Aip. But it sure doesn't seem like they're starving, yet they aren't touching the two big Aips. At a bit of a loss. I won't feel comfy moving the occupant corals into the big tank in a few months if there's Aip still; I don't want to take the Berghia out early if they're just executing a massive subrock anti Aiptasia campaign like superheroes raiding the lairs of the crab people; I don't want the Berghia to starve if my data is mistaken and they are quite capable of starving over the course of months instead of days.

Derp.

 

[JayLu]

Based on my experience, for every aiptasia that I see in my tank, there are at least 10 more that I don’t see. They are very good at hiding from plain view. So, i think you are correct in that the berghia’s are eating the unseen ones.

 

[Hugh Mann]

I once thought I only had a couple large aiptasia too. Then after lights out, I looked with a flashlight, they stand out a bit better I found and there were dozens, only a few millimeters tall.

 

[tehmadreefer]

Without aiptasia the berghia will die within a few days.so they are feeding on ones deep in rock pores. Berghia do not have any other food source.

 

[mvbrandt]

That was the real question for me. I know they only eat Aiptasia. I feared they were simply taking months to starve. If it's a certainty they can only last a few days without, they're definitely sustaining on a large hidden Aiptasia infestation, and all is, in the end, well.